Detached

Accidents Happen

I didn't travel again while at the hotel. I can take a hint. And that lady definitely gave me a hint. I needed to get my mind off of things so I flirted with any guy that I came in contact with. Okay, yes it was slutty. But it's just flirting...right? It was a dose of normality and that's what I needed. Not the point, now's not the time to judge me!

We packed up our things Sunday morning and prepared for the long drive back. I offered to drive so that I wouldn't be at risk to leave my body again. Paige made comments about my drving the whole way, and I mumbled things about her getting checked for a disease...or a baby. We arrived home in time for my family not to eat dinner together. I said I wasn't hungry and headed straight for my room. Not that anybody cared anyway. I "fell asleep" on purpose that night, trying to leave my body. It didn't work strangely. Ironic, the one night I actually want to leave my body, I don't. Maybe I was just overly tired. Maybe not. 

School started up again and my life got..semi-back to normal. Well, that is as normal as my life can get. Jazz was pretty much the only person that talked to me. After my "episode", everyone thought I was possessed. Eddie stayed farthest from me. Can you blame him? The kid was the savior of the "possessed". Mom and Dad decided to send me back to a therapist. I went just because I didn't want to deal with the fighting.

"How was it today, Hun?" My mom asked me after she picked me up from my session. I wasn't allowed to drive.

"You tell me. He's the one giving you guys a label to put on me. What is it today? Crazy? Skitzo? Paranoia?" I smirked at their reactions. The therapist was an hour away from the house, so I decided to sleep. Sleep had been impossible that week and it just so happens right then wouldn't be possible either. I was about to step back into my body and try to sleep but then I heard my parents talking about me.

"She's out like a light." My dad said.

"I though she'd never fall asleep. She hasn't slept all week. What do you think it could be?" Mom replied.

"I don't know, Janie. But I don't think this therapist is helping anything but his bank account."

"I don't know what to do anymore. It seems like we've done all we can without sending her to a center." A center? Like for crazy people? I did NOT belong in a center! My dad set his jaw and shook his head.

"I will NOT have my daughter put away." He said.

"If it gets her better, dear. That's what they had to do with your grandma didn't they?" My mom replied.

"And they would have done it to my mom, too, if she hadn't fought the doctors until she finally...." He trailed off deep in thought. Anguish was all over his face. I felt horrible for him. Gram had died when I was a baby. We never talked about her much.

"I don't think we really have a choice, do we? Mark? Mark." My mom said his name once more before yelling it. "MARK!" And then I saw it. My dad was staring at the semi coming at us at about one hundred and twenty miles an hour. There was nowhere for my dad to go. The semi hit my side first and I saw my body jerk around. I felt the pain of broken ribs and then the crack of my head against the window. My mom was screaming. Quickly I touched my broken arm trying to get back in but I couldn't. My hand went right through my arm like a ghost's would. No. I thought. I can't be dead. No, no, no, no! "NO!" I screamed. No sound came out of my mouth. My dad was unconscious and my mom frantic. My adrenaline was sky rocketing, but all I could do was wait. Wait for the paramedics to come. To pronounce me dead. To tell my family and what little friends I had left the horrible news. To bury my body with my soul on the outside. To forever be trapped in the other world like all of the other wanderers that died outside of their bodies. The tears were streaming down my non-existent face now. They say you see a white light and your life flash before your eyes when you die. For me the light was yellow-orange and I saw my life end before my eyes. They weren't too far off I suppose.

I watched the paramedics put my lifeless body onto a stretcher and then into the back of the ambulance. My mother was a mess. I couldn't see what had happened to my dad, all I knew was that he wasn't in the car anymore. And like me, he was being taken to the hospital.

I just couldn't get used to the fact that I no longer had a body, and yet I was still alive. Would you ever get used to that? I thought about all the things I did in life. They added up to about five that were actually cool. Wandering was number one just because nobody else really ever did that. There was so much more that I had to live for and just like that it was gone. I finally got close to finding out why I wandered and it just escaped me before I even had time to grasp it. My own grandma was a wanderer. It was obviously genetic and I-

"Willow?" A voice said behind me. I turned around slowly. Who would be wandering out here? I guess I don't have to worry about axe murderers considering I'm already dead.

"You can see me?" I said.

"Well yeah. Fancy meeting you here, eh?" He laughed.

"Wait. A-Axel? Is that you?" I stuttered.

"Yeah it's me. Wow I never thought I'd see you here. I thought I couldn't communicate with the living..unless...?" He trailed off waiting for my reply.

"I, um. I died. About an hour or so ago actually. You missed the fireworks." I said.

"So you're a ghost now too? See for me it was really hard to accept because I'm a catholic. And so at first I thought, you know, maybe this is a test to see if I get to go to Heaven. Sorta like a purgatory thing. But then I just never went-"

"A ghost? No. You're a wanderer. Axel, how did this happen?" I said.

"Oh right. Well you see that night after I left your hotel room I went down to the bar across the street. Ended up getting in a fight with one of the guys and he stabbed me. And here I am. And what is a wanderer? And how are you here exactly?" He said.

"I was just in a car accident. I died... At least I think I did.." I began thinking. They, the paramedics, never did announce me DOA (dead on arrival). I could still be alive. "Axel. We have to get to the hospital. And fast."